Hazel Park, Warren part of 6-city robbery spree, police say

HAZEL PARK  A Detroit man is suspected of holding up seven stores in six cities in a week-long crime spree that police say started in Hazel Park.

The suspect, Tore Price, 37, is charged in Warren 37th District Court for one of the robberies and is jailed on $1 million bond.

The U.S. Attorney in Detroit has taken over prosecution of the cases against Price.

Hazel Park Police Chief Martin Barner said Price began his series of armed-robberies Jan. 25 when he robbed a CVS store at Nine Mile and John R.

We believe (Price) committed these robberies to support a drug habit, Barner said.

Price entered the store about 11:50 p.m. and presented a note to a female cashier announcing the robbery and telling the clerk she would die if she failed to give him the money from the register, police said.

The clerk gave Price $161 dollars and he fled the parking lot in a silver 2005 Mazda that was carjacked five hours earlier in Lincoln Park, Barner said.

Over the following six days police said Price did armed robberies at a CVS store in Garden City, a 7-Eleven in Westland, a CVS in Warren, a Rite Aid store in Roseville, a Starbucks coffee shop on the Wayne State University Campus, and a butcher shop in Detroit.

Barner said that police agencies in the various cities where Price struck were in touch with one another, sharing witness descriptions and other information.

Eventually the U.S. Marshals Service was called in to help with the case, chiefly because they have more experience and resources to apprehend fugitive suspects, Barner said.

Price was arrested Feb. 1, the day after his last known holdup at Ye Olde Butcher Shop in Detroit, about a mile south of the Wayne State University campus.

Price is a parole absconder. He was convicted of bank robbery in Oakland County in 2006 and served nearly four years in prison before he was paroled in 2010, according to Michigan Department of Corrections records. He was also on probation for a misdemeanor offense in Troy at the time of his arrest, police said.

Price is set a preliminary examination at 1 a.m. Feb. 14 before Warren District Judge John Chmura.